Climate: How green are Premier League clubs in 2023?
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BBC Sport has worked with the United Nations-backed Sport Positive Summit since 2019 to research the sustainability of all 20 Premier League clubs, with the rankings updated each year
Premier League clubs have come under fire for the use of domestic flights this season, with some 30-minute flights between fixtures criticised for their impact on the environment.
But clubs are also judged on what else they are doing to improve their climate credentials, with an annual table measuring everything from use of plastic to plant-based food.
For the fourth consecutive season, United Nations-backed Sport Positive has ranked all 20 Premier League clubs, external based on their environmental efforts.
Here are the key findings:
For the second year running, Tottenham and Liverpool have come joint top.
Spurs are the only club putting on classroom education sessions on environmental sustainability for both their men's and women's first team squads.
All teams lost points for taking domestic flights - a new scoring element this season.
Four clubs report all their emissions publicly - Liverpool, Spurs, Manchester City and Wolves.
Seven clubs have net-zero targets, including Arsenal, Newcastle and Southampton.
Forest Green - who came top of the EFL sustainability table - would have scored 26 in the Premier League rankings, with no domestic flights taken.
The maximum score that can be achieved is 27.
Club ownership and sponsorship is an area that has not yet been added to the scoring matrix, but Sport Positive CEO Claire Poole said "organisations a football club aligns itself with" are "part of the bigger picture when it comes to sustainability".
Poole added: "The current Premier League teams have somewhere between 13-46 sponsors each, around 350 organisations overall. There are very few fossil fuel companies, but while a lot of the sponsors do purposeful work, some can be viewed as having an adverse effect on our planet or our society in some way."
In a statement to BBC Sport, the Premier League re-iterated it "is in the process of developing an environmental sustainability strategy, which will set out plans to deliver climate action".
Analysis
BBC Sport Editorial Sustainability Lead, David Lockwood:
Once again there is some great work being done by individual clubs in individual areas, led by committed people. Still lacking is something more co-ordinated from the top of the game. We still wait on the Premier League strategy 18 months after they announced their net-zero target.
The biggest obstacle though is not a Premier League issue, it's the growth of the European club and international calendar.
We are told that Uefa's expansion of their tournaments is a response to the wishes of the clubs and the threat of a breakaway European Super League. If true, then there a disconnect between all the good work being highlighted here and the overarching boardroom strategy of Premier League clubs.
This is without even touching on the relationship football has with fossil fuel finance, from sponsors, owners and staging of events."
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